Got a good
buzz item?
 
Get in touch with our Buzzmeister:
John Schrag
 jschrag@wweek.com
(503) 243-2122
Fax: (503) 243-1115

News Navigator
Newsbuzz
King-56 crash
Business
Politics
Rogue of the Week
Scoreboard
Letters
500 Words
Home

Oregon environmentalists are still miffed, but haven't given up hope that Enron will live up to its end of a bargain signed earlier this year.

After several months of contentious wrangling between PGE officials and environmentalists, local leaders from 13 environmental and conservation groupssigned an agreement in January supporting a merger between Texas-based Enron and Portland General Corp. Enron, in exchange, promised to contribute $10 million to fish and wildlife habitat restoration plus millions annually to programs promoting renewable energy, weather-proofing of homes for low-income customers and energy efficiency.

 But a dispute erupted last month after Enron, the nation's largest energy company, presented its blueprint for deregulation. Consumer and environmental groups say Enron's proposal shaves millions off the amount of money it had pledged for environmental programs in Oregon.

According to the activists, Enron had promised 3 percent of its total revenues annually, roughly $27 million, for environmental and low-income programs, known throughout the industry as "system benefit charges." Enron, however, now says its annual share should be about $21 million--$6 million less than what the nonprofits think it should pay. To reach that figure, Enron officials applied an exemption from the regional plan allowing some utilities to calculate their share based on the percentage of regional customers they serve rather than on a straight percentage of profits.

The logic behind the exemption has to do with regional differences in the cost of distributing power. Activists say it was meant to level the playing field for small, rural electric co-ops such as Cascade Locks or Drain Electric, not for big multinational companies like Enron. "We think it was pretty clear that this was put in for the little Eastern Oregon utilities," says Steven Weiss of the Northwest Conservation Act Coalition. "It wasn't meant for the big guys."

 PGE spokeswoman Rochelle Lessner argues that Enron is eligible for the exemption because of its high energy costs. Moreover, she says, environmental groups knew this was Enron's intent. Both sides are reviewing tapes from previous discussions to settle the dispute. "I guess I'm a little annoyed at this revisionist history," says Lessner.

 The environmental groups are currently negotiating with PGE to reach a compromise. Looking on the bright side, says Weiss, the disagreement has already spurred a broader discussion of energy deregulation. "It's like sausage-making," he says. "It's not pretty. But this is the way it's done." --EM

Monica Cuenca

Follow-up
 
SETTLED DOWN
 
As any lawyer will tell you, sometimes it takes the cold stare of 12 sets of eyes from the jury box to persuade two parties to settle a case. That's what happened last week in a civil suit stemming from the 1994 murder of mental health worker Monica Cuenca.

The lawsuit was filed by Cuenca's family, who accused Portland Adventist Medical Center, Bethea's treating doctor Glenn Ruminson and the state Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services Division of contributing to Cuenca's death by releasing Bethea from the psychiatric ward without properly assessing his danger to society. The family asked for $9 million ("One Fell Through the Cuckoo's Nest," WW, Sept. 3, 1997). Last week, immediately after jury selection, all three defendants agreed to settle for a confidential amount.

Prior to the trial, defense lawyers had been concerned about juror impartiality after WW's cover story detailing the lawsuit. But plaintiff's lawyer David Slader says they needn't have been concerned. Of about 40 potential jurors, none had read the WW story. --MO

Follow-up
 
Hoppin' Mad
 
David Parks is getting frustrated--and political. Since the Aug. 26 shooting outside a Cool Nutz show at LaLuna, it has been harder for hip-hop promoters like Parks to secure venues ("Bad Rap," WW, Sept. 10, 1997).

 Last week Parks sent out a press release to Portland news outlets urging journalists to report on the local hip-hop scene and the challenges it faces. Parks, a musician with Hungry Mob, not only wants to improve hip-hop's image, but also hopes to get Portlanders openly discussing race, black-on-black crime and the role of the Portland police in African-American neighborhoods. He says he's found that both blacks and whites are uncomfortable talking about such issues in Portland. To start the conversation, he's planning to produce a video about black music and race relations in Portland, which he hopes to air on cable access, public access and MTV.

 Parks also promises that POH-HOP--Portland's annual hip-hop festival, which has been held at LaLuna--will go on in '98, "even if I have to have it in my basement."

--BD

heroin.com
 
Want the scoop on junk? Look no further than the "Heroin in Portland" Web site (http://www.teleport.com/~acudetox/heroin.shtml). Although the site includes a list (and some photos) of local hot spots for scoring smack--such as the Burger King on East Burnside Street--this is no cyber pitch for legalizing drugs. At the top of the site's opening page is a message that reads, "The creators of this site believe addiction is a bio-psycho-socio disorder which regularly needs the help of police, to focus the attention and resolve of an addict."

The Web site doesn't list its creators, but WW has learned that it is registered to Jason Renaud, who once worked at Central City Concern, one of Portland's leading drug-treatment centers.

The site's anti-heroin message is clearly grounded in a street-level view of addiction. The list of current drug-dealing hot spots, for example, is aimed not at making life easy for addicts, but rather at bringing some heat onto property owners. The site also details how easy it is to drift into the trap of using and selling drugs and outlines treatment methods and their limits.

Ed Blackburn, director of chemical dependency services for Central City Concern, says he didn't know of the site until notified by WW. The views of its author, he says, aren't necessarily those of Central City Concern, but he agrees that heroin use is becoming a larger problem in Portland. He says heroin deaths, as well as admissions to detox and methadone programs and Narcotics Anonymous group enrollments, have been on the rise during the past 5 years in Oregon.

 --RR

Right Tool, Wrong Result

The homebuilders may have the right tools--like money--to win the urban growth boundary debate, but they don't always use them wisely. At least that's the case with the Homebuilders Association of Metropolitan Portland's 10-day radio campaign for expanding the UGB, which appears to have backfired.

The 60-second radio spot, which ran during drive time on KXL, KINK and KWJJ, asked listeners to call Metro, the regional governing body, and express their views on boundary expansion, which comes before the Metro Council for a vote Oct. 9.

The results: 59 percent of the 502 callers opposed expansion, and only 31 percent favored it (the other 10 percent were undecided).

While the call-in results are an unscientific sample, they don't look good for the homebuilders, who would have done better to rely on Metro's mail survey of 11,500 households. In that survey, 46 percent opposed expanding the UGB and 45 percent favored it, with 9 percent undecided.

Now the homebuilders are put in the position of discrediting their own phone survey. Homebuilders spokesman Kelly Ross acknowledges that the Metro poll results are probably more accurate than the calls prompted by his group's radio campaign. Ross suggests that the ad "motivated expansion opponents to marshal their troops" and call Metro.

Still, Ross maintains it was worthwhile to run the ads because they will translate into "word of mouth and neighborhood discussions that will filter out and reach decision makers."

The Homebuilders Association advocates a 10,000-acre expansion of the UGB. Metro Executive Officer Mike Burton favors a 3,000- to 4,000-acre expansion. The seven-member Metro Council is expected to opt for a 6,000-acre expansion--at least that's what Jon Kvistad, the council's presiding officer, told The Washington Post this week.

 Ross found comfort in the lengthy Post article, which dubbed the UGB "Portland's 'Great Wall'" and said the boundary is starting to crack under the pressure of population growth, rising housing costs and decreasing land supply. "This seems to be a pattern," says Ross, noting that Forbes and The Economist magazines have also run recent stories airing criticism of the UGB. --BY

NADER Aid

Bashing the "value system of commercialism," Ralph Nader stopped off in Portland to make a commercial of his own last week. Nader drew a crowd of 250 people to Portland State University on Wednesday to announce the formation of the Consumer Justice Alliance. The CJA is a new network of about 20 Oregon lawyers organized by Jason Reynolds, executive director of the Oregon Consumer League. Reynolds says the lawyers are pledging pro bono help for defrauded consumers who cannot afford private counsel.

Reynolds says he will work with the Oregon Department of Justice to zoom in on consumer cases like construction fraud, auto ripoffs and financial scams. Pete Shepherd, the DOJ's consumer fraud attorney, says there's plenty of room for more consumer advocacy in Oregon. "We get 25,000 calls a year and 9,000 written complaints about consumer fraud," Shepherd says. "There's way more demand than service."

Nader's speech called attention to the need for consumer safeguards. The lifelong consumer advocate drew two standing ovations as he rattled off examples of corporations eroding consumer rights. Highlighting the importance of Reynolds' new legal-action group, Nader accused corporate lobbyists of "persuading Americans that we're too litigious, pushing tort deform and making it more difficult for us to have our day in court."

But Nader did offer a prescription: civic time. "Not even CEOs have more than 24 hours in one day," he said, urging the crowd to commit a few hours a week to activism.

For Reynolds, Nader's visit was more than a publicity stint. The collection hat outside was overflowing. Corporate bottom line: the group raised $1,000. --JF